Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers filled radio airwaves and arenas with rock ’n’ roll masterpieces. They endured from the 1970s FM generation to the modern streaming era.
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The Heartbreakers’ pithy songs are instantly recognizable. Perhaps no other songwriter in history gained more mileage than Tom Petty out of four chords and the truth. For 40 years, they found magic in a nasally singer fronting a jangly ’60s-inspired rock band.
“Breakdown” was the perfect way to introduce Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to the world in late 1976—Petty’s cool pain giving way to adolescent grievance. The two-chord intro is a palette for Mike Campbell, one of the great sidemen in popular music history. Though Campbell has all the colors in front of him, he chooses to paint with only a few.
A Throwaway Lick Becomes the Hook
Guitarist Mike Campbell said the original recording was nearly six minutes long. His signature guitar lick had appeared only during the outro. He called it a “mindless doodle.” It was a momentary phrase played while he fished for an outro guitar solo.
Late at night, Petty played the track for singer-songwriter Dwight Twilley. Twilley suggested the outro guitar lick needed to repeat throughout the arrangement. Petty called the band back to the studio to re-record the song. Campbell learned what he’d played during the outro. His minimalist lick became the song’s recognizable hook. The new arrangement was edited down to less than three minutes. Campbell summed up “Breakdown” on his Facebook page as “a lesson in simplicity.”
Pain and girl-done-me-wrong themes are recurrent in Petty’s work. He sings his way through a failing relationship with dispassionate resignation.
It’s all right if you love me
It’s all right if you don’t
I’m not afraid of you running away, honey
I get the feeling you won’t
You see, there is no sense in pretending
Your eyes give you away
Something inside you is feeling like I do
We’ve said all there is to say
Examining his life story, the trauma from an abusive father most certainly fed the angst. His words move in a straight line. There’s very little ambiguity in a Petty song.
Break down, go ahead and give it to me
Break down, honey, take me through the night
The Heartbreakers, as a band, hum along like the same efficient engine. The extraneous parts have been edited out. Drum fills are kept to a minimum and the band falls into a lazy groove echoing Petty’s detachment.
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Punk rock did away with the excesses of the 1970s. But the Heartbreakers were still a rock ’n’ roll band. They, too, cut out the fat and bloat of ’70s rock. Almost half the songs on their debut album are under three minutes long.
“Breakdown” was written by Petty and produced by Denny Cordell. Cordell had produced hits for The Moody Blues and Procol Harum. He started Shelter Records with Leon Russell. Shelter had signed the Heartbreakers precursor, Mudcrutch. They released Petty’s self-titled debut album in 1976 and “Breakdown” was the lead single.
Not a Hit, at First
The single first found success on the British charts. After many months of touring, the record label re-released the song in America, where it became a Top 40 hit. Along with “American Girl,” “Breakdown” established Petty at rock radio.
The album was certified Gold and reached No. 55 on Billboard’s Top LPs & Tape chart in 1978. But, side note: Petty had signed away his publishing rights. He was eventually able to renegotiate his contract, and won back 50 percent of his rights by the band’s fourth album, Hard Promises.
Legacy
One of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ great gifts is their knack for austerity. The band’s arrangements are consistently straightforward. They use space as well as anyone. With the Heartbreakers, what isn’t played is as important as what is played.
Tom Petty made California rock that was still hooked on the South. Petty reimagined 1960s music in a grounded and relatable way. He and his band followed their influences—Dylan, The Byrds, The Beatles—to become legends themselves.
And the band was as durable as the songs. They toured and recorded relentlessly for the better part of four decades. Like “Breakdown,” there were many fractured relationships in Petty’s life. Petty was fighting for survival from a young age. He fought his father and his record label. He fought personal demons and a mid-life heroin addiction. Still, he and the band endured.
“Breakdown” sounds like the open highway; like speeding through the desert, any rock ’n’ roll grievances barely visible in the rearview, and with only the rare glimmer of hope on the horizon up ahead.
Photo by Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
